Hakkaisan Sakes

The sakes served included Hakkaisan Tokubetsu Junmai, Hakkaisan, Junmai Ginjo, Hakkaisan Honjozo as well as a special treat carried all the way from Japan, Echigo De Soro, a seasonal Hakkaisan Nama Genshu. Echigo De Soro was the first sake served and it is a bold fresh sake that we serve quite cold for a refreshing start! The deliciously flexible Hakkaisan Honjozo was served to our guests both gently warmed in a carafe and also chilled in stemware. This allowed guests to experience this versatile sake two ways and pick their favorite!

Eel Chirashi and Red Miso Soup

Here is the complete Menu:

Valentine Dinner For Couples

Appetizers
Cauliflower Tofu with crab meat and wasabi
Simmered Rabe blossoms and soy milk skin
Simmered bamboo shoots with dried bonito
Jellied fish broth
Clear soup with Oyster cake, carrot daikon radish scallion and citrus

1st Course
Assorted Sashimi of the day

2nd Course
Simmered Diakon Radish, Simmered Shrimp and Simmered green Vegetable

3rd Course
Japanese style beef steak
Deep fried yam with seaweed
Green tea soba noodle salad

Main Course
Steamed eel chirashi with thinly sliced omelet and shiitake mushroom
Red soy bean miso soup

Dessert
Valentine Special dessert

At the end of the evening, guests were treated to a gift bag including a magnificent Hakkaisan Arita porcelain sake set (one carafe + two cups = perfect for couples!) and a complementary bottle of Hakkaisan Tokubetsu Junmai as well as a gift certificate for two to the entertaining Kitano Jazz bar!

The guests really enjoyed themselves. Wonderful sake, delicious Kaiseki food and Valentine’s fun all add up to a wonderful evening at Hakubai!

Q: How long have you worked with Hakkaisan?
Mr. Nakazawa: I’ve been working here for 23 years.

Q: What is your job here at Hakkaisan?
Mr. Nakazawa: I am the manager of the Tokyo Office for Hakkaisan Brewery. I work with my colleagues here to expand the Hakkaisan brand and make sure that Hakkaisan drinkers enjoy our sake. Our usual work is to visit liquor shops and discuss how we can work together to promote Hakkaisan sake. At the same time, we also started to do sake tasting events in restaurants as well. We also have a tasting and seminar room here at our office. The purpose is to help people to understand Hakkaisan and to be come familiar with our sake.

Katsumi Nakazawa

Q: What foods do you pair with Hakkaisan Sake?
Mr. Nakazawa: Believe it or not, cream cheese sauce and even cheese pizza pair well with Hakkaisan. Cheese and sake are both fermented so I know they pair well together.

Q: Do you have any message for American consumers of Hakkaisan Sake?
Mr. Nakazawa: With the first impression, Hakkaisan is not very fragrant or very rich on the first sip, but its strong point is that it supports food pairing so well. I would like to recommend that Americans try food and sake together. I know from my work here, that there are some people who only care about the daiginjo super premium sakes – anything that is super rare and expensive. They are only focused on super premium and never come back to try our everyday sakes. I am working hard to get fans for our everyday, regular sakes, the Hakkaisan Honjozo and Futsushu. This ties in with our company’s mission to make high quality everyday sake available to everyone at a good price. I would like to recommend that our American customers try all of our sakes, but be sure to sample our Futsushu and Honjozo. They are really worth checking out!

Today’s visit takes me out of Niigata. I’m heading out into the field and visiting the well known sake retailer Mr. Atsuo Matsuzaki. Matsuzaki-san runs two well known sake shops in Saitama Prefecture that sell lots of Hakkaisan Sake. The Matsuzaki sake shops are interesting because the two stores are housed in such very different buildings!

Matsuzaki Sake Shop

Hakkaisan Sake was well represented of course, with several shelves devoted to their products. They carry Hakkaisan Honjozo, Junmai Ginjo, Ginjo and many others in all different sizes. It’s a one stop shop for Hakkaisan. Mr. Matsuzaki asked me if I had any questions, and I asked him what he thought was needed to make sake popular in the USA. He told me that he thought “education was very important and for Americans to get accustomed to the taste of sake as it’s a bit different from what they know”. I couldn’t agree more!

Sake Cups in the Floor

After some time, Mr. Matsuzaki asked me if we wanted to see his other store. So we hopped in his car and drove about 10 minutes to a very different Matsuzaki Sake shop. This shop was a very old traditional wooden Japanese building. As I stepped inside, I was shocked as Mr. Matzusaki told me that this shop was actually attached to his childhood home! The interior seems like a step back in time was made from a beautiful dark wood in a very traditional Japanese style. Much smaller than the other shop but beautifully appointed with antiques and tableware among the Sake bottles.

Vintage Sake Cups for sale

Too soon, it was time to catch the train and leave Saitama. I had such a wonderful time visiting the Matsuzaki Sake Shops and learning so much! My very special thanks to Mr. Matsuzaki for such wonderful hospitality and kindness. As we parted ways, Matsuzaki-san invited me back next time I’m in Saitama. You can count on it!

Matsuzaki Sake Shop
547 Nakaruku
Kawagoe-shi Saitama 350-1156
Japan

http://www.1887.co.jp/

Ms Chizuko Niikawa, the CEO of Sake Discoveries worked to organized this great party. She arranged for several brewery’s sake to be served at the party. Thank you, Chiz!

Tebasaki

The party was for 40 guests only and the tickets sold out quickly. This is understandable as the tickets cost only $40 for sake and food!!

Kasadela’s signature dish is Nagoya-style chicken wing called Tebasaki. It is quite delicious and pairs really well with a dry sake. I believe that their Tebasaki is the best chicken wing in NYC.

Guest enjoyed various kinds of sake and tasty izakaya dishes. And also, Mr. Kurosu of Tatenokawa Brewery joined the party and served their sake.

It was a great starting party to kick off 2012, the year of Dragon!

“It’s like the cleanest water ever!” said Jim. I asked him if sake was the cleanest water ever. He said,
“no, no. Hakkaisan is the cleanest water ever. I don’t know whether they use the cleanest water
ever to make it, but it tastes like the cleanest water ever. It’s a little sweet and a little dry. I wish water tasted like this…”

I asked Jim if he had any secret story which was related to sake. He said, “I have many stories about when I didn’t know how to handle my sake. Because sake is like the cleanest water you have ever drank in your life, if you are not careful, you keep thinking it’s the cleanest water ever, and the next thing you know is you’ve turned into Heath Ledger as the Joker.

Jim said, “I feel like singing all the time. I sing to my wife, sing to my dog, and sing to my friends.
Why are you asking me these questions? What is your purpose? What’s the meaning of life?
Sake is great. That’s the meaning (singing).”

Jim Helton, filmmaker
http://jimmyhelton.com/

Project by Atsushi Nishijima
http://jimagraphy.com/

Q: What is your work here at Hakkaisan Brewery?

Suzuki-sensei: Before joining Hakkaisan Brewery, my major was not related to Sakagura business but rather teaching about the technical aspects of sake making. When I joined Hakkaisan Brewery, many of the kurabito were very young people who just graduated from high school. Of course there are other seasonal workers helping us brew from autumn to spring. But after I joined Hakkaisan I would hold lectures for these young employees and teach them all about the technical points of sake making. I also instruct them on the attitude and spirit that goes into making great sake. I dedicated myself to improve the quality of Hakkaisan and I made a lot of effort to do that. I wanted to learn all I could about making high quality sake. After our current toji, Mr. Nagumo joined as full time employee, our technical ability of sake making got much better and the quality of our sake improved dramatically. Recently, I’ve been taking care of the water purification systems. This cleans the water we use to wash the rice before we return it to the river. High quality water is so important to sake making, so we want to protect the environment.

Suzuki-sensei

Q: What foods do you like to pair with Hakkaisan sake?
Suzuki-sensei: I seldom eat food when drinking sake! I believe the classic Hakkaisan sake flavor does not cover up the taste of food, but works in a supporting role. When I do eat food with sake, I recommend not something not too salty – such as grilled fish.

Q: Do you have any message for American consumers of Hakkaisan Sake?
Suzuki-sensei: The history of sake in Japan is one of the oldest parts of our food culture, so it’s important to understand that it’s a part of our history. I think that sake is part of the Japanese people’s DNA, because it’s such a match to our lifestyle and food culture. I believe that compared to Japan, the United States has a shorter history and not such a historical food culture – so I recommend that people try sake and experiment with the taste of sake. I believe that sake can support many types of cuisine including the favorite taste of the U.S. as well. Sake can be a wonderful addition to the menu.

Second, I know that the export tax rate for Junmai sake and alcohol added sake is very different. That is why the alcohol added style of sake ends up being a little more expensive. However the fortified style of sake is also part of our culture. I hope to arrange and work to modify the tax situation so that people can choose based on taste preference, rather than only on price. Years ago, Junmai sake used to be very thick and have a strong flavor compared to the fortified style of sake one. Recently, thanks to the technical improvements in sake making, many Japanese breweries can make a very smooth and light junmai-shu. While Junmai sake is getting more and more popular abroad and even here in Japan, I hope people will not overlook the fortified style of sake, which is great in it’s own right.

Before too long, he re-opened Honmura-an in the Roppongi district of Tokyo. I had the pleasure of dining here and enjoying their wonderful food with Hakkaisan sake.

The meal started with a delicious grilled fish that was served as a welcome appetizer to all guest. Next we got some tender and delicious octopus sashimi. We also shared a wonderful fresh salad with ginger dressing which was very refreshing. Of course, tempura was also on the menu.

The star of the show, without a doubt was the delicious soba noodles. We tried them served both warm and cold. The noodles were tender, tasty and cooked to perfection!

If you find yourself in Tokyo, a trip to Honmura-an is well worth a visit!

Honmura-an
７丁目-１４-１８ Roppongi Minato,
Tokyo 106-0032, Japan
Tel: 03-5772-6657

Sato-san with Baum Kuchen

Q: Tell us the story of how Satoya Japanese-style Cafe got started here on the grounds of the Hakkaisan Sake Brewery.

Mr. Sato: The first time that Mr. Nagumo, the President of Hakkaisan, offered me the opportunity to open a sweets shop was more than 3 years ago. I was very surprised at the time, as I am a trained patisserie chef, and I am not a chef of Japanese sweets. I thought I was not suitable for that job the first time he asked me, so I turned him down.

Despite this, we were still good friends. Even though I said no we would still meet from time to time and have a drink together, exchanging ideas and having a fun time. Out of the blue, Mr. Nagumo called me and invited me for a drink. I still remembered his first offer, but I run a patisserie shop nearby called “Sucre” and I enjoy working there so much with my staff and talking to customers one-on-one. I couldn’t imagine how I would manage my time and all the responsibilities from running a Japanese style cafe in addition to my patisserie. We talked about it and since Mr. Nagumo was set on having a Japanese style sweets shop and cafe, I had the idea to introduce him to someone else who might be good for the job making Japanese-style sweets. But Mr. Nagumo told me that he wanted me to run the shop and didn’t want to move forward with anyone else. I thought about it some more, but couldn’t say yes right away.

Satoya Sweets Shop

Mr. Nagumo called me again and asked to re-consider my decision one more time. I wasn’t confident at all about making Wagashi style sweets. But after thinking about it long and hard, I finally decided that I would like to do similar work just as my Father did. I decided then and there that I want to continue the Wagashi making tradition for my father. So again I told Mr. Nagumo that I was not confident, but then I studied some and I finally said yes and the project got underway.

And then we started to discuss and have a meeting once a month to work on product development for the new Café. The manju we came up with was based on my dad’s recipe. My dad would use flour, sugar, baking powder and instead of adding water, he used Hakkaisan Futsushu sake instead. My dad loved sake.

Satoya Sweets Shop

Q: What foods do you like to pair with Hakkaisan sake?
Mr. Sato:I really enjoy delicious free range chicken from Akita that is served grilled with a crispy skin. With that particular dish, I really enjoy chilled Hakkaisan Junmai Ginjo sake.

Q: Do you have any message for American consumers of Hakkaisan?
Mr. Sato:For my father’s and grandfather’s generation there was not a great variety of sakes available to pair with food. People would get together and enjoy simple foods like pickles together with sake. But now, for our generation, things have changed and there is a broad selection of sakes to pair with good food. It’s better to find a good pairing to emphasize the taste of both the food and the sake. I don’t mean that you need to have expensive, fancy food – it can even be everyday food, but I hope people try many types of sake and food pairings. Also, for beginners, I recommend trying sake that is chilled. Of course I drink warm sake as well, but I recommend chilled when you’re getting started. I even drink chilled sake in the wintertime!

Hakkaisan.com is celebrating the holidays and we are giving away a beautiful Hakkaisan Sake Brewery 2012 Wall Calendar to ten lucky winners!

This is a beautiful Large Format calendar! See the official rules below and good luck!

To enter the giveaway, visit our Facebook Page:

CLICK HERE to Enter Facebook Giveaway!

Giveaway Rules

1. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A purchase of a product or service from Hakkaisan Sake Brewing or any of its affiliated companies will not improve the chance of winning. Void where prohibited. Subject to all federal, state, and local laws. Participation requires Internet access.
2. CAN I PARTICIPATE? To participate in the Hakkaisan Sake Brewery 2012 Wall Calendar Giveaway you must:
   - Be 21 years old or older at the date of entry.
   - Be a legal resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia.
3. CONTEST PERIOD. Hakkaisan Tokkuri set giveaway will be accepting entries online starting at or about 12:00:01 PM (EST) December 20, 2011 and ending at 6:11 PM (EST) December 31, 2011 (The “Contest Period”). All online entries must be received by 6:11 PM (EST) December 31, 2011. There will be a random drawing of 10 (ten) winners. Winners will be contacted via email provided to supply a shipping address for their 2012 Wall Calendar which will be sent via USPS. All shipping addresses must be in the 50 United States or the District of Columbia.
4. HOW DO I ENTER? Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hakkaisan-Sake/126951927329685?sk=app_28134323652 and fill in the Giveaway form to join our email list. All winners will be contacted by email for their shipping address.

   One entry per person. All Entries are online. Submitting an entry constitutes agreeing to the terms of these Official Rules and all decisions of Hakkaisan and/or its designee, which are final and binding in all respects. Sponsor is not responsible for incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete entry of information or for entries which are incompletely received, otherwise defective or lost due to any reason, all of which will be voided. Each submission of an Entry Form shall constitute an entry (“Entry”).

5. ENTRY FORM REQUIREMENTS. Entry Form email sign up requires: e-mail address and agreement to the rules.
6. WHAT CAN I WIN? We are giving away 10 (ten) Hakkaisan 2012 wall calendars during the Contest Period.

The Hakkaisan Brewery grounds has a new addition. Recently a new sweet shop called “Satoya” opened. Satoya is just steps away from the Hakkaisan Brewery and Soba restaurant. The business is run by Mr. Koichi Sato, the son of a well known local backer of traditional Japanese sweets. Sato-san gives us his own take on these sweets, but brings things up to date with some fun ingredients including Hakkaisan Sake!

The shop itself is light and airy with a big open feel. Lots of light comes streaming in the circular windows and the second floor is furnished with tables for anyone who wants to sit and relax with their tea and sweets.

The menu includes Dango (mochi rice balls dipped in various sauces) Hakkaisan Sake Jelly, Baum Kuchen (German-style ringed layer Cake), matcha green tea ice cream parfait and of course, the famous Manju (sweet bean cake) made with Hakkaisan sake lees.

Drinks include delicious homemade matcha tea as well as Hakkaisan’s own amazake, a sweet, non-alcoholic cloudy style of nigori sake that the locals drink on the rocks as an energy drink. There was so much to try and such a relaxing atmosphere, I could have spent the entire day here!

In the end, my very favorite was the Matcha Ice cream parfait! It had a little bit of everything – Ice cream, baumkuchen on the bottom, sweet red beans, whipped cream and some green tea mousse for good measure. Delicious!! There is a lot to love at Satoya – it’s a wonderful respite from travel or stress and a great new way to enjoy the tastes of Hakkaian.

Stay tuned for an interview with Mr. Sato later this month!